Radiographic assessment of pulmonary metastatic lesions in superficial cutaneous and mammary neoplasms in dogs

The present study was carried out to assess the pulmonary metastatic lesions in cases of canine superficial and mammary neoplasms presented to the University Veterinary Hospitals, Mannuthy and Kokkalai, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University during a twelve month period from February 2019 to February 2020. Twenty-four cases of neoplasms in dogs consisting of 12 cases of superficial neoplasms and 12 cases of mammary neoplasms were subjected to fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for the confirmation of malignancy of neoplasm and three view thoracic radiographs were taken to assess the pulmonary metastatic pattern. The results were correlated with the malignancy detected in histopathological analysis after excisional biopsy. The most commonly observed pulmonary metastatic lesions were pulmonary nodules followed by pulmonary micronodules, miliary nodules, and pulmonary mass. These lesions were more evident in malignant mammary neoplasms especially in tubulopapillary carcinoma, ductal carcinoma, and medullary mammary carcinoma with spatial arrangements more in the perihilar region followed by caudodorsal, midventral, and cranioventral area of lung parenchyma. In case of superficial neoplasms miliary patterns and pulmonary microndules were mostly detected as pulmonary metastatic pattern in soft tissue sarcoma, round cell tumour, and malignant fibrohistiocytoma.